A motor vehicle instrument panel generally comprises a number of indicators, for example a speedometer, an engine revolution counter, a fuel level indicator, and especially needle indicators.
The needle of an indicator, controlled and rotated by a motor, or movement, generally extends in front of a support bearing screen-printed indicator characters forming a dial (for example graduations and values). The indicator is thus mounted in a protective and screening hood, which supports a protective window.
The support for the screen-printed indicating characters bears the name “faceplate”. It generally comprises a thick sheet of opaque or translucent plastic.
The Applicant has sought to provide a novel instrument panel offering many options in the arrangement of the indicating characters, especially the arrangement of the graduations with respect to the values denoting them, in rendering relief effects and in playing with transparency and opacity effects.
The related art only provides devices in which there are fewer options, these being limited to specific relief effects. Thus, for example, devices are known which have an indicating needle, rotated in front of a screen-printed faceplate formed in relief, which have a needle rotated to the rear of a flat faceplate, and which have a needle rotated at the front of a faceplate, with a protective window placed to the front and itself also having indicating characters. The alternatives offered to the designer of an indicator can therefore be summarized as giving a relief effect to a faceplate, playing with the arrangement of the faceplate with respect to the needle, or giving a protective window the function of a front window. These alternatives have limited application.